TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS
Justices licenced and registered a variety of occupations, paid others, and recruited some (soldiers and seamen) themselves. Many registers, applications for licences, recognizances, and a variety of other records survive.
ALEHOUSE KEEPERS, INNKEEPERS, VICTUALLERS, ETC.
Sellers of intoxicating liquor have been licenced since 1552. All alehouse keepers (but not, initially, innkeepers – inns were substantial establishments catering for wealthy travellers) were supposed to be licenced. Generally, the task of licencing fell to the local Justices. The licensee entered into a recognizance promising not to permit ‘unlawful games’, not to harbour vagrants, and not to ‘keep any disordered or evil rule in his house’.1
Restrictions on alehouse keepers were gradually extended; those who contravened them could lose their licences. No time period was specified in the 1552 Act, but the custom of annual licencing developed, reinforced by a Royal Proclamation in 1619. The two Justices granting a licence generally took into account two points: the conveniency of the house, and the character of the applicant. If he could find two sureties, the licence was likely to be granted.2
The 1552 Act was amended in 1729: licences were to be granted annually at special Petty or Brewster Sessions. Justices could only grant licences in their own divisions. The legislation was tidied up by a fresh Act in 1753, but not radically changed. The Alehouses Act of 1828 again tidied up the legislation, providing a new framework for licencing the sale of beer, wine, and spirits, and for regulating inns. After 1752, if premises were used for entertainment, that might require a separate licence (see below).
Licencing records consist primarily of recognizances and registers. Recognizances generally name the licensee, his parish and two sureties. The actual house or inn sign was unlikely to be mentioned until the late eighteenth century. Recognizances may be bound up separately in rolls or bundles, or included in the sessional rolls. They ceased to be required in 1828.
Records are sparse for the sixteenth century, although at least 297 recognizances were certified to the Somerset Quarter Sessions in 1630.3 The proclamation of 1619 ordered Clerks of the Peace to keep annual registers of recognizances. Surviving registers mostly date from after 1753, when they were made statutory. The requirement did not last: the 1828 Act made no provision for registers of licencees. However, minutes, annual reports and correspondence of county licensing committees may be available for the succeeding period. The 1753 Act required prospective licensees to submit testimonials of good character, signed by their local minister and churchwardens. In Middlesex, constables made returns of victuallers and spirit retailers, giving names, whether licensed or unlicensed, the inn sign and sometimes the street. Similar returns are occasionally found elsewhere. Sessional rolls may include related documents, such as presentments, petitions and indictments relating to unlicensed or ‘disorderly’ houses, and lists of licenced premises. Order books may include similar documentation, as well as recording the grant of licences.
Constables were responsible for policing licensed premises. Their presentments sometimes dealt with matters such as unlicensed premises. Parish vestries also concerned themselves with their local alehouses.
Records of Brewster Sessions include similar documentation to that already discussed, although they are rare before the nineteenth century. The Licencing Act 1872 made it mandatory to keep registers of licences granted at Brewster Sessions. These are very detailed, including the name of the licensee, the inn sign and location, owner and leaseholder, the date the licence was first granted, the proximity of other licenced premises, and the type of customer, etc.
Licencing records for the final years of Quarter Sessions may sometimes be found amongst the archives of police forces. Licencing matters sometimes came before Assizes, so their records (see Chapter 12) may also contain relevant information.
Licencing was not just a local concern; it was also a matter for central government agencies. Late sixteenth-century wine licences, for example, were granted by letters patent, and subsequently by royal patentees. Between 1830 and 1869, beer house licences could be obtained from Excise offices. Full details of surviving records in The National Archives are given by Gibson’s guide.
Further Reading
The history of alehouses is outlined in:
• Clark, Peter. The English Ale House: Social History, 1200-1830. (Longmans, 1983).
For an introduction to the records of licensees, see:
• Fowler, Simon. Researching Brewery and Publican Ancestors. (2nd ed. Family History Partnership, 2009).
For a detailed listing of the records, see:
• Gibson, Jeremy. Victuallers’ Licences: Records for Family and Local Historians. (3rd ed. Family History Partnership, 2009).
See also:
• Tracing your ancestors who worked in pubs
Dorset
• Dorset, England, Alehouse Licence, Records, 1754–1821
ANNUITANTS
A 1762 Act required those claiming the right to vote by virtue of an annuity to take an oath, and certify the rent charge and the property from which it issued. Memorials submitted by annuitants to Clerks of the Peace may survive, as may the registers in which they were entered.
BADGERS, CHAPMEN, AND OTHER ITINERANTS
Badgers were itinerant sellers of corn, fish, butter and cheese. From 1563, they and other itinerant traders were licenced by Quarter Sessions. Recognizances and registers identify their homes and sureties. Numbers licenced steadily declined in the eighteenth century, as both badgers and Justices increasingly ignored obsolescent legislation: badgers gradually became respectable businessmen. Licencing was abolished in 1772.
BARGE OWNERS
An Act of 1794 required vessels over 13 tons engaged in inland navigation to be registered by Clerks of the Peace. Certificates were issued to owners, and abstracts of registers sent to the Admiralty. Registers of barges record the kind of vessel, their burden, the names (and perhaps addresses) of owners and (usually) crewmen, the number of crew, the line of navigation, and the extent of the line of navigation. The requirement ceased in 1798, but sometimes registers were continued for a few years.
Registration was again imposed by the Canal Boat Acts of 1877 and 1884. Registers recorded names of owners and most masters, indicating the extent of accommodation for bargees’ families on board. By 1883, 22,561 boats had been registered. Registration was conducted by Sanitary Authorities set up by the Local Government Board, and had nothing to do with Quarter Sessions.
Further Reading
Full details of both sets of registers are given in:
• Wilkes, Sue. Tracing your Canal Ancestors: a Guide for Family Historians. (Pen & Sword, 2011).
The evidence provided by the registers is used extensively in:
• Hanson, Harry. The Canal Boat-men, 1760-1914. (Manchester University Press, 1975).
BUTCHERS
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, butchers were liable to fall foul of legislation prohibiting the eating of meat during Lent. They were sometimes required to enter into recognizances not to dress meat during this period. Such recognizances sometimes survive.
COMMON INFORMERS
Informations provided by common informers led to the prosecution of many misdemeanours. Fines resulting from successful prosecution could be divided equally between the Crown and the informer. Informers could easily detect offences such as selling ale without a licence, trading without having served an apprenticeship, or building a cottage on less than four acres of land. In early seventeenth century Somerset individual informers presented up to forty informations at each sessions.4
By the end of the seventeenth century, some Justices had become suspicious of informers’ activities. In the 1690s, several were presented for extortion at North Riding Quarter Sessions; its records cease to mention their activities after 1707.5 By contrast, Essex informers were actually employed by Quarter Sessions; in 1719, they were formally instructed to investigate the whole range of offences triable by Quarter Sessions, and to make presentments.6
CORN DEALERS
Acts of 1791 and 1821 regulated corn imports and exports, requiring corn dealers, maltsters and millers buying corn for sale to make a declaration that they would make true returns of the price of corn. Declarations give names, abodes and occupations.
COWKEEPERS
An Order in Council made in 1879 required cowkeepers, dairymen and purveyors of milk to be registered. Registers record names, addresses, trades, and the conditions of their premises, especially their cleanliness. This order was related to action being taken to prevent the spread of contagious diseases amongst animals.7
ENTERTAINMENT
The Disorderly Houses Act of 1752 required houses used for dancing or other public entertainments in the London area to be licenced. Similar licences were required in the provinces from later in the century. Many papers from the Middlesex Sessions relating to these licences are held by London Metropolitan Archives. Licence applications, perhaps with petitions for or against the licence, were filed with Sessions papers until 1836; thereafter, there is a separate series, although only a few years survive. Some licences also survive. Documents name owners and addresses, and give the terms of licences. Printed lists of licences granted are held. Police reports from the 1860s and 1870s list applicants, addresses of premises and whether they were licensed to sell spirits. There are also police reports on the holders of music and dancing licences who sold spirits without a licence.
A Cow Keeper in Golden Lane, London. (Courtesy of Wellcome Images.)
Under an Act of 1878, the Metropolitan Board of Works had to approve plans for alterations to places of entertainment; a few plans survive, together with letters certifying that work had been carried out according to approved plans.
FLAX AND HEMP GROWERS
Acts of 1763, 1781, and 1786 encouraged the growing of flax and hemp by granting bounties to growers. Claims noted the name of the claimant, the land where the crop was grown and the amount claimed; they were counter-signed by a Justice and two parish officers. Receipts from dealers who had purchased the crop were sometimes attached. Claims were listed for presentation to Quarter Sessions, advertised, and then passed on to the Commissioners of Trades and Plantations. The Treasury remitted the cost to Quarter Sessions, who paid claimants. On receipt, claimants entered into bonds against false claims. Bonds give names, parishes, and occupations of growers and sureties, the quantity and location of flax grown, and the amount paid. Surviving records include original claims, lists of claimants, accounts and bonds.
GAMEKEEPERS AND THEIR EMPLOYERS
Many statutes restricted the killing of game to the elite. Possession of land worth over £100 per annum, or being the heirs of esquires and aristocrats, was required under an Act of 1670. This Act authorised the appointment of gamekeepers who could search the houses of suspected poachers, and seize nets, dogs, etc. From 1710, one gamekeeper from each manor had authority to kill game as the ‘deputy’ of his employer. Gamekeepers’ deputations are recorded in registers. In some counties, these are found at the back of Quarter Sessions order books. Registers give the names of manors, their lords, and their gamekeepers, with dates. Gamekeepers were sometimes appointed for several manors; many were esquires, gentlemen, yeomen or even clergy. Registration continued into the twentieth century. These registers are useful sources for establishing the names of manorial lords, as well as enabling the careers of gamekeepers to be traced. Other records include original ‘deputations’, which may name witnesses, applications (or ‘requisitions’) for game certificates, and lists of those to whom certificates were issued.
William Parsons of Kirkby, gamekeeper drawn by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, 1783.
Game duty, payable annually, was introduced in 1784; the Act required registers of persons qualified to kill game to be kept by the Clerk of the Peace. They and their gamekeepers received game duty certificates. Sometimes separate registers for gentlemen and gamekeepers survive; these are quite distinct from the registers under the 1710 Act. Administration was transferred to the Collectors of Assessed Taxes in 1807.
Register of Gamekeepers’ Deputations. (Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre A1/307.)
MAIMED SOLDIERS
Soldiers injured during sixteenth-century and later wars were entitled to pensions. Applicants produced certificates testifying to their service and disability, and were examined by Justices of the Peace as to their impotency, loyalty, and indigence. Pensions were granted by Quarter Sessions, who raised a maimed soldiers’ rate, and determined amounts. Officers received more. After the Restoration, Parliamentary soldiers were ineligible. The amount available was limited; applicants sometimes had to wait until a pension became available. In the meantime, they relied on the overseers. In Devon, Quarter Sessions refused to make grants unless the claimant received relief from his parish’s overseers.8 Many records survive, especially for Civil War casualties.
Order books record grants of pensions. Clerks of the Peace received petitions for relief, with supporting letters from commanders, and kept books listing maimed soldiers. Treasurers’ accounts may also name them.
PRINTERS
The Unlawful Societies Act of 1799 required printers of ‘irreligious, treasonable and seditious’ papers to be suppressed. All printers needed a certificate from Clerks of the Peace, and submitted ‘printers notices’ giving their names, signatures, addresses and the number of presses. Witnesses and their addresses may also be named. The Clerk registered these notices, sending copies to the Secretary of State. Notification ceased to be required in 1869.
SEAMEN
Various Acts passed between 1794 and 1797 required Justices to recruit seamen, specifying numbers required from each county. A specially called General Sessions decided numbers required from each parish. The principal inhabitants selected recruits, and parish officers returned their names to Petty Sessions. Parishes levied rates to pay bounties; advances could be paid to ‘volunteers’. Records may list recruits, the parishes for which they served (not necessarily the same as parishes of settlement), their calling, age and the bounty paid to them. Treasurers’ accounts may provide useful information.
SERVANTS
Justices of the Peace had jurisdiction over the relationship between master and servant from the fourteenth century. They fixed wages (see Chapter 10), punished those who broke covenants, and adjudicated when wages were not paid. In Somerset, early seventeenth-century complaints from masters and servants were regularly directed to Quarter Sessions, and as regularly referred back to two local Justices.9
The Statute of Artificers required servants in most trades to serve for at least a year, and to produce testimonials from their previous master when taking service with a new one. Masters who did not demand these testimonials could be prosecuted.10The penalty for departing from one’s master without proper notice was imprisonment, frequently in Houses of Correction (see Chapter 10).
Between 1607 and 1611 a substantial number of offenders against these requirements, both masters and servants, were prosecuted in the North Riding. Three centuries later, Black Country industrialists were able to use the law against servants breaking their contracts when dealing with major strikes.11
The Statute of Artificers also made it an offence for those able to work to refuse to accept a master. Masterless men were regarded with suspicion, and frequently proceeded against. A statute of 1572 classified them as vagrants liable to punishment (see Chapter 8). Acceptance of casual work for a few days every month did not count; service had to be for at least a year. Quarter Sessions order books are full of orders requiring masterless men – especially teenagers – to find masters. Idle and potentially rowdy young people needed discipline to prevent them committing offences such as rioting.
Hundred Courts held annual hiring sessions, where wage rates were proclaimed, disputes between masters and servants arbitrated, returns listing servants and their wages from parish constables received, and agreements between masters and servants registered (the registers very occasionally survive). Masters were expected to attend these sessions; in 1676, no less than 120 masters were presented at Quarter Sessions for the Parts of Holland (Lincolnshire) for their failure to do so.12 Hiring sessions mostly ceased during the eighteenth century.
SLAUGHTERHOUSE KEEPERS
Various Acts required slaughterhouses to be licenced. The earliest was an Act of 1786, aiming to reduce theft of cattle and horses. Subsequent Acts were concerned with hygiene and the prevention of diseases such as rinderpest. Registers were required under the Towns Improvement Clauses Act of 1847, the Public Health Act of 1848, and the Public Health Act of 1875. The slaughterhouse register of Chelmsford’s Medical Officer of Health records dates of registration, addresses, names of owners and occupiers, descriptions of the animals killed, the numbers which may be slaughtered weekly and signatures of Clerks.
SOLDIERS (see also MAIMED SOLDIERS)
The Militia was the responsibility of the Lord Lieutenant (see Chapter 1). He sometimes obtained recruits amongst convicts at Quarter Sessions and Assizes. Justices of the Peace were given greater responsibility for recruitment by an Act of 1796. The same procedure was followed as is described above for the recruitment of seamen. London Metropolitan Archives holds relevant documents, including returns of ‘volunteers’ giving names, parishes, ages, occupations and the amount to be paid as bounty. It is noticeable that none of the men were settled in the parish for which they served; many were Irish.
SWEEPS
The Chimney Sweepers’ Act of 1875 prevented young children from being employed as sweeps. It required sweeps to register their names with the police and to obtain licences. If they compelled children to climb chimneys, their licence would be revoked. Sweeps’ registers record their names and addresses, with the names and ages of their employees, and may be found amongst police records in local record offices.